Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Janathon Day 18: Avoiding feeling bleak


Janathon Day 18: Run - 2.92 miles, Time - 32min 47sec, Weather misty moisty

Another picture from Monday as I took none today - it was too grey and oppressive. At the moment I am trying to avoid feeling bleak.
Today's run was a help, just because I did it. It would have been so easy to continue to mope about yesterday but I didn't. I adopted the shock tactics of rolling out of bed, into my running kit and out the door before my brain could start to argue. Still dazed I pushed the start button on my watch and was off. 
Just like yesterday my heart rate started to go a bit crazy but this time I decided to run 3 miles whatever and pay more attention to the heaviness of my breath. I stopped and started a few times but the heart rate eventually evened out and I ended feeling that I had achieved my goal, even if it was on average a few beats higher. Far more important than an arbitrary number was the feeling that I was doing something
The feeling you get from running links in with another Cochrane Review about the effect of exercise - this time on depression. The overall conclusion was that it has a positive effect but one that is difficult to quantify. It is hard even to say what exercise is the most effective. There is thus plenty of scope for more methodologically robust trials to discover dose and effect

It is interesting that Cochrane Reviews, which are the nearest thing we have to a summary of the current state of knowledge on health matters, seem to show that we know very little for certain. Yet people still have to make recommendations and the current one of 30 minutes a day of any type of exercise seems to be prevalent.
My next task is obviously to try and find out where it comes from

1 comment:

Travelling Hopefully said...

There is a definite sense of bleak in the air - roll on spring time.